1.  Since I was born on Christmas Eve, I am a Christmas Carol!  Hooray!

2.  Of all the wildest things, we have a glittery full size purple Christmas tree!

3.  It shows off the ornaments in delightful ways.

4.  I fell in love with it in the foyer of a Borders store with a 40% off coupon in my hand!  How could I resist?

5.  My family was kind enough to humor me after a lifetime of green trees, and now we all enjoy the fun of purple tree, especially my grandchildren.

6.  I also wear a red sequinned Santa hat a lot because it seems to make people happy, I even forget it’s on my head until someone comments.

7.  Christmas Carols always perk me up and really seem to have the exact right energy for real Christmas spirit.

8.  This year I am giving my son and daughter, 37 and 38, very detailed instructions I had left for babysitters when they were toddlers and babies, and putting them into a booklet called “A Glimpse into Your Childhood”.  I am so tickled I found them!  They really reveal their baby personalities.

9.  I also found tapes of my sister Barbara, and the start of an oral history, and also a tape from an article I did about her for a local paper.  I thought they were lost forever.  Since she passed, we all thought we had no record of her voice.  I am having CDs made of the tapes for everyone in the family and her two best friends.

10.  Staying away from the malls is a  holiday treat for me.  I am so grateful to be able to coordinate that almost every holiday season.  Give me the love and joy, and not the spending trillions and get wild and stressed!  Hooray!